CIVIL WAR PAINTINGS | Now on Display

A CALL NOT UNHEEDED

The exhibit features a dazzling array of militia and National Guard distinctive unit dress uniforms, ballot boxes and decorative bronze trophies that interpret the social organization of the National Guard, original artifacts from the USS Maine, and a carronade captured during the 1857 Dead Rabbits Riot in New York City.

Battleground for Freedom

No less than 120 military engagements occurred on New York soil, more than in any other state, ranging in scale and significance from the decisive Battle of Saratoga to numerous bitter skirmishes and ruthless raids that raged throughout the frontier settlements...

The mission of Friends is to be a support to the museum, to aid in fund raising for exhibits and displays, as well as assisting in drawing attention to the museum through programs, lectures and events. As the board of trustees, we are the elected board which helps direct the membership to facilitate the support mission of the non profit group.

NY National Guard's 27th Division suffered 1st combat death on July 13, 1918.

On July 13, 1918 – 363 days after being mobilized for service in the World War— the New York National Guard’s 27th Division lost its first man in combat. Private Robert P. Friedman, 22, a New York City native assigned to Company A of the 102nd Engineer Regiment, died as the result of wounds suffered in a German Artillery barrage. A graduate of the City College of New York, a shell severed his spinal cord and he died within two hours of the attack, according to the August 1918 American Jewish Chronicle. Friedman would be the first of the 27th Division’s 1,791 Soldiers killed in action. Another 9,427 would be wounded before the war’s end in November 1918.

The last of the division’s Soldiers had arrived in Europe in late May and spent most of June being trained in British weapons and trench-fighting tactics by British troops. The last division troops had only just arrived in France a week prior on July 7.In July the 27th moved up behind the British Second Army in the Flanders region of Belgium. They occupied the defenses of the East Poperhinghe Line, a backup to the main British trench line. The New Yorkers were four miles from the nearest German and in range of the German guns. The Poperhinghe line consisted of trenches, machine gun positions and fortifications. If the Germans broke through the main British and secondary British trench lines this series of positions would hold them up long enough for the British Army to counterattack.

While 40 of the 42 American divisions sent to France in 1917 and 1918 served in the American 1st and 2nd Armies under General John J. Pershing; the National Guard’s 27th and 30th divisions were “borrowed” by the British Army. Hit hard by the German Army’s “Kaiser Offensive” in March 1918, the British wanted more manpower and wanted it badly.The British agreed to provide the ships to bring ten American divisions to France. In return those divisions were to train in the British section of the front in Belgium and northern France, providing backup to British troops and then serve under British command. Pershing agreed, but after the men trained with the British, Pershing reneged on the deal.

Field Marshal Douglas Haig was not pleased and protested vehemently. To mollify Haig somewhat, Pershing agree to leave two National Guard divisions – New York’s 27th Division and the 30th Division, whose troops came from North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee—under British command. The 50,000 men of the two divisions were organized as II Corps—the smallest American Army Corps—although they sometimes fought in separate British Corps and not as a unified American Corps.

The American’s swapped their M1917 made in the USA Enfield rifles for the British Army’s Short Magazine Lee-Enfield Mark III rifle. The American version of the rifle fired different ammunition so it had to go. The 27th and 20th divisions were also equipped with the British Lewis light machine gun instead of the French-made Chauchat used by other American units. This was probably a good thing since the Chauchat was known and frequently criticized by Soldiers for jamming.

The American’s also started eating British rations. In general, the Doughboys were not happy about that either. The American ration called for larger portions of food along with milk, butter, candy, and cigarettes and plenty of coffee. The British ration was a little meat, cheese and tea instead of coffee. The British rations also featured the Maconochie Army Ration. The meal took its name from the British canning company that produced it. The can contained a stew of beef, potatoes, beans and onions and sometimes turnips.If eaten warm, the Soldiers recalled, it was palatable. But eaten cold in a trench is was a lump of fat with vegetables. It was also famous for “inducing very fragment flatulation,” according to one author. The New York Soldiers of the 27th Division were not pleased with the British rations.“The English rations were a mystery to the cooks,” according to the author of “A Narrative of Company A, 106th Machine Gun Battalion. The American cooks got used to opening tins of Maconochie stew, the book says “and became so adapt at opening them that it became a habit.”

But eventually, according to Mitchel Yockelson, author of the 2008 book “Borrowed Soldiers,” a history of the 27th and 30th Divisions, the Americans were given more food than the average British Soldier. Along with giving up their American rifles the 27th and 30th divisions also gave up their field artillery.

Each of divisions was supposed to have a field artillery brigade: the 52nd Brigade in the case of the 27th Division. Each brigade consisted of two 75 millimeter field artillery regiments of 24 guns each and a regiment of 24 155 millimeter howitzers. General Pershing was willing to give up American infantry brigades to help the British, but he wasn’t giving the British the American’s Army’s scarce artillery assets.

The artillery brigades of the 27th and 30th divisions were assigned elsewhere. The 52nd Brigade was assigned to the 33rd Division and then to the 79th Division. The American II Corps was supported by British and Australian artillery units instead. Pershing also decided that he wasn’t going to give Field Marshal Haig any more American Soldiers than he started with. While other American Army units in France were sent replacements to make up for casualties taken in battle, the 27th and 30th were not. The longer they fought, the fewer Soldiers they had.

Private Friedman would not be replaced.

As July turned into August the Americans waited for the British to commit them to battle. American units took their turn in the British front lines to get accustomed to combat. Some men were wounded and some killed and some distinguished themselves in combat. Major General O’ Ryan, the division commander, sent out information to officers about how to use British map coordinates, some very talented Soldiers in the ranks put on shows to pass the time for their fellow troops, and the Doughboys simply waited for their turn in the trenches. Their wait to go into the attack would eventually see them face German troops which had been preparing and digging in their defense for the last four years.

During the World War I centennial observance the Division of Military and Naval Affairs will be issuing press releases noting key dates which impacted New Yorker's based on information provided by the New York State Military Museum in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. More than 400,000 New Yorkers served in the military during World War I, more than any other state.

Korean/Vietnam War Exhibit

A display case from our recent "Vietnam Reconsidered" presentation a few weeks ago. Planning, designing and procurement is well underway for our upcoming Korean/Vietnam War exhibit. Construction started in the last week of May. In the meantime, that area is closed off from public view. Stay tuned for further details in the coming weeks.

Can you identify these individuals?

Stan Dube'sWorld War Two Sketches

These sketches provided by Ira Dube of U.S. Army 27th Infantry Division soldiers were among more than a dozen done by his father, Stan Dube, during World War II. Ira Dube, found them stashed in the attic of his sister’s home. Now Ira Dube is hoping to identify the men, so he has donated 15 sketches to the New York State Military Museum and Veterans Research Center in Saratoga Springs.

In December of 1917 the National Guard Soldiers of the 42nd Division were all in France, waiting for training in the trench warfare that marked World War I in Europe.

The division's 27,000 troops had started moving from Camp Albert Mills on Long Island to France in October. The last elements of the 26-state division--the 168th Infantry Regiment from Iowa-- had reached France at the end of November.

The 42nd Division had been formed by taking National Guard units from 26 states and combining them into a division that stretched across the country "like a rainbow" in the words of the division chief of staff, Colonel Douglas MacArthur.

The largest elements were four regiments from Ohio, Iowa, Alabama and New York organized in two brigades of two regiments and supporting units.

The New York National Guard's 69th Infantry, renowned as the "Fighting 69th" had been renamed the 165th Infantry.

By Christmas 1917 the division's elements were located in a number of villages northeast of the city of Chaumont, about 190 miles east of Paris. The men had hiked there from Vaucouleurs where they had originally been deposited by train.

The 165th Infantry celebrated Christmas 1917 in the village of Grand. Father Francis Duffy, the regiment's famous chaplain, celebrated a joint American-French mass on Christmas event.

According to Sgt. Joyce Kilmer, a poet, and editor, "the regimental colors were in the chancel, flanked by the tri-color. The 69th was present, and some French soldier-violinists. A choir of French woman sang hymns in their own language, the American Soldiers sang a few in English, and French and American joined in the universal Latin of "Venite, Adoremus Dominum."

On Christmas Day the men ate turkey, chicken, carrots, cranberries, mashed potatoes, bread pudding, nuts, figs and coffee. The Army, wrote Corporal Martin Hogan "was a first rate caterer."

The 168th Infantry, from the Iowa National Guard, hosted 400 French children at a Christmas celebration in the village of Rimaucourt. Two American Soldiers dressed like Santa Claus gave presents to the French children and a French band played the Star Spangled Banner. The kids received dolls, horns and balloons, recalled Lt. Hugh S. Thompson in his book "Trench Knives and Mustard Gas."

The 168th didn't eat as well as the 165th on Christmas day, according to Thompson. "Scrawny turkeys and a few nuts were added to the usual rough menu" he recalled.

The 166th Infantry from the Ohio National Guard, was reviewed by General John J. Pershing, the commander of the American Expeditionary Force just before Christmas. On Christmas they enjoyed music from the regimental band and a good meal.

While Christmas 1917 was a good one for most Soldiers of the Rainbow Division the next week went down in the division's memory as "The Valley Forge Hike."

It was 30 to 40 miles from where the division's troops had celebrated Christmas to the town of Rolampont, where the U.S. Army's Seventh Training Area, had been established. 121917.

Today you can drive the route in an hour. In 1917 it took the Soldiers four days to get there.The march was miserable, according to the 1919 book "The Story of the Rainbow Division."

The Soldiers had "scarcely any shoes except what they had on their feet, there was no surplus supply to speak of. Some of the men had no overcoats."

The Soldiers walked into a mountain snowstorm. In some places the snow was three to four feet deep. Soldier's shoes wore out. Some marched almost barefoot and there were bloody trails in the snow.

Lt. Thompson recalled that the men in his unit were issued hobnailed boot: the soles were held by heavy nails. The problem, he said, was that the nails got cold and the men's feet froze too.

At night the men huddled in the barns and haylofts of the French villages to keep warm.

The mule and horse drawn supply wagons got stuck on the icy roads and men had to move their best animals from wagon to wagon to get them unstuck, Father Duffy recalled.

For three days the men in the 165th Infantry Regiment's Third battalion had no food, according to Kilmer, and when rations caught up to the men they got coffee and a bacon sandwich, or a raw potatoes and bread.

"The hike made Napoleon's retreat from Moscow look like a Fifth Avenue Parade," one New York officer remembered later.

"The men plowed over the hills and thru the snow, enduring hardships which are not pleasant to remember," wrote Reppy Alison, the author of a book about the 1st Battalion 166th Infantry.

Medics reported cases of mumps and pneumonia as the temperatures dropped below zero. Hundreds of men fell out-- 700 at least and 200 of the New Yorkers--but most made it to Rolampont.

As the 165th Infantry arrived, the regimental band struck up "In the Good old Summertime".

By New Year's Day the division's elements had arrived in Rolampont, and along with a new year they got a new commander.

Major General William Mann, the former head of the Militia Bureau, the equivalent of today's Chief of the National Guard Bureau, had taken command of the division at Camp Mills.

But Mann, who was 63 in 1917, couldn't meet the physical standards for officer laid down by General John J. Pershing, commander of the American Expeditionary Force.

He was replaced by 55-year old Brig. Gen. Charles T. Menoher.

As 1918 began Menoher and the Soldiers of the Rainbow division began gearing up to go to go into the trenches. 121917.

World War I and the New York National Guard

New York National Guard in World War I - Centennial News

NEW YORK -- Before they walked down the gangplank onto French soil in April 1918; 25,000 New York National Guard Soldiers walked down Fifth Avenue in August 1917 so New York City could say goodbye.

On August 30, 1917, hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers lined a five mile route from 110th Street to the Washington Square Arch as the 27th Infantry Division paraded down the street.

There were so many marching Soldiers, the New York Times reported, that it took five hours for the parade to pass by. After being federalized on July 15, 1917 New York Army National Guard members remained at their armories, being issued equipment, undergoing medical checks, shoeing mules, and beginning to train for war.

The units also continued final recruiting efforts to bring their companies and regiments up to full strength. Local men were urged to go to war with their friends and neighbors instead of waiting to be drafted or enlisting in the Regular Army.

In Saratoga Springs, for example, Louis Dominick decided to join the local National Guard company at the last minute instead of enlisting the "depot company" the Army had established for the county. Dominick's decision meant the regular Army recruiters were now one short of their goal of 50 Soldiers for the county, the "Saratogian" newspaper reported. While the Regular Army officers who were orchestrating mobilization wanted the Soldiers to move into field camps quickly, the New York National Guard argued that it made more sense to use its armories for the mobilization process instead.

"These measures could be taken in a much more efficient manner in the great armories of New York State than they could in open fields, while commands were endeavoring to make camp with ranks augmented by many recruits and without military property adequate for their strength," Major General John F. O'Ryan, the 27th Infantry Division commander, wrote after the war Initially, O'Ryan was told that his division-destined to be known as the 27th Division but still being called the 6th Division by the Army-would be training at Camp Wadsworth in Spartanburg, South Carolina and was slated to move in early August.

With this early August departure date in mind, New York City's movers and shakers began planning for a big farewell parade. Initially the parade was set for Thursday, August 9, 1917. But on August 6, the division learned that Camp Wadsworth wasn't ready yet. The big parade was put off.

"If we lined the sidewalks of New York with the relatives of the Soldiers –mothers, sisters and so forth, all crying and bidding goodbye to the boys-then the troops remained here for a week, maybe two weeks, the whole big impressive parade would become ridiculous," New York City Mayor John Mitchell, told the New York Times.

The delay in moving south was probably a good thing, the New York Times also reported, since the Soldiers of the 27th Division were still short of equipment and the units needed to be consolidated. The men of the 71st Infantry Regiment, for example, were spread out in small elements over 700 square miles of upstate New York, the Times reported. It would take 30 hours to concentrate the unit, the paper said.

On August 23, O'Ryan was informed that the division would move south beginning in early September and the big parade in New York City was back on again. Only now the festivities would include a dinner for 24,000 New York National Guardsmen as well. Regiments from upstate New York were moved down to Van Cortland Park. Other regiments camped at Pelham Bay Park, Prospect Park in Brooklyn, and Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. Three coastal defense regiments – Soldiers trained to man the forts that still protected New York City in 1917-were on duty there.

On August 28, Mayor Mitchell hosted a dinner at the Hotel Biltmore for O'Ryan, his division staff, and unit commanders. On August 29, a committee of 100 Prominent Women played hostess at the camps around the city as the rest of the New York National Guard troops enjoyed "farewell rallies around feast laden boards," in the words of a New York Times reporter.

"Only a town like the City of New York could seriously undertake a hospitality of such magnitude," O'Ryan wrote.

The big parade kicked off at 10 a.m. on August 30. Members of Soldiers families were given a special pass that allowed them access to the west side of Fifth Avenue from 110th Street south to 59th Street. Locations at the Plaza Hotel, the Pulitzer Memorial, and Madison Square were also reserved for Soldiers families. Each Soldier got four passes for his family members. The New York Police Department was geared up to handle an expected two million spectators with 4,000 officers under the command of nine inspectors stationed along the parade route. Chief Inspector James Dillon, the officer in charge of the parade, issued an order forbidding the public from using "boxes, barrels, chairs, campstools or settees of any kind" while watching the parade. The Police Department Band led the parade, which allowed all the regimental bands to march with their parent organization.

First in line was the 22nd Engineer Regiment. The regiment's A Company had already been ordered to Yaphank on Long Island to build a camp which would eventually be occupied by the newly formed 77th Infantry Division. Its D Company was already in South Carolina helping to finish Camp Wadsworth. The rest of the regiment was due to get on a train after the troops marched past the reviewing stand at the Union League Club, and head south to help finish up construction of the post.

At the reviewing stand Mayor Mitchell, former President Teddy Roosevelt, and other state and local dignitaries waved and greeted the troops.

The marching troops remembered cheering crowds, with people waving flags and shouting themselves horse, while "bombarding" the troops with "candy, chewing gum and all kinds of fruits, cigars and cigarettes."

Most of the troops in the parade finished their march and went back to camp to wait for their turn to go to Spartanburg. The men of the 102nd Ammunition Train, for example, finished up marching in late afternoon and then boarding an elevated train to head back to camp.

A New York Times writer called the parade: "A thrilling, stirring sight!" "File upon file, hour after hour, of well-set, clear-eyed, determined men, some young and yet to be hardened in training camps, others, and many of them, made fit already by experience to take up their final training in the fields and trenches behind the battle lines in France," the New York Times said. "We have never faced such a war as this, we have never had such an Army as we now have in the making," the Times added.

For the next couple of weeks, the big parade of August 30 was replicated several more times on a smaller scale as individual regiments left New York for Spartanburg. The 7th Regiment's march to the train station on Sept, 11, 2017, for example, even included a second march past the Union Club for a sendoff by New York City's great and good.

With the parade and send offs behind them, the Soldiers of the 27th Division adapted to their new home in South Carolina and began to learn the art of soldiering in the 20th Century. There would be much hard fighting in France ahead in 1918.

During the World War I centennial observance the Division of Military and Naval Affairs will issue press releases noting key dates which impacted New Yorkers based on information provided by the New York State Military Museum in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. More than 400,000 New Yorkers served in the military during World War I, more than any other state.

08.18.2017Story by Eric Durr New York National Guard

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